Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Introduction

It is well known that timely feedback is important for learning 1, 2. In recent years, educators
have been exploring just what form that feedback should take for student homework. The
balancing act is between providing fast feedback to the student countered by the labor intensity
of providing quality, complete, valuable feedback. Meanwhile the student needs to be motivated
to do the hard work of solving the quantity and variety of problems needed for learning, without
demoralizing penalties for making mistakes while learning. Further, many professors prefer to
use homework scores as a significant portion of the final course grade because it is difficult to
test students on such a wide variety of problems.

To achieve these goals, several homework options exist for the professor: traditional homework,
homework that is graded online 3, 4, and homework that is assigned but not graded. Each of the
various approaches addresses the homework balancing act differently, and each has its
drawbacks (Table 1). An alternative approach described in this paper incorporates many of the
benefits of these various methods in a manner that enhances student learning: a combination of
traditional homework and self-graded homework.

Benefits Drawbacks
Traditional • Contributes to the final • Penalty for mistakes
homework grade • Time consuming grading
• Grade reward provides • Students often do not look at their errors or
motivation the solutions
• Partial credit possible • Feedback is slow
• Minimal motivation for students to correct
their mistakes
Homework • Immediate feedback • Answers must be in an exact format and the
graded • Minimal instructor time student is tied to the computer to do
online • Grade reward provides homework
motivation • Often no feedback regarding the cause of
• Possibly no penalty for errors
mistakes • Complete solutions are often not available to
the student
• Possibly penalty for mistakes
• Partial credit not an option
Homework • Immediate feedback • Minimal external motivation for the student
not graded • Minimal instructor time to do the work
• No penalty for mistakes • Often students do not do the work
• Allows student to take • Complete solutions are often not made
charge of his/her own available to the student
learning
Table 1.

We have been using this combination approach for four years, and have found it very valuable.
A literature search came up empty on this topic, but a web search revealed that several other